Fuck the game, I can't believe the goals! I have over the years ripped on the Italians for being so afraid of losing they couldn't beat a decent team unless their opponent choked the game away (like Holland in the Euro2000 semifinal), but my god they came out firing in extra time, and kept it up until the end. These Italians are much more aggressive than in previous years when they had the 5-3-1-1 going, and still so far nobody's scored on them but themselves. Anyways, a game with 2 minutes left in extra time with the dream match-up of the notoriously nervous penalty takers who choke games away, versus the German penalty machine that never misses, and for once the Italians decided not to go out like that.
The first goal started with a shot by Andrea Pirlo, taking a ball out of the air 30 yards out he settles and takes off, leaving a turning around behind him trying to figure out where he went, gets some room, and as Mertesacker tries to run with him to deny the clear shot, Pirlo cuts his shot back behind Mertesacker from 25 yards out, with enough power and height on it that Lehmann has to punch it out for a corner. Del Piero takes the corner, which was headed down and out of the box to Pirlo, who moved right and as defenders came his way and forgot about Fabio Grosso, Pirlo without looking up knocks a gentle ball into the box to him. A wide open Grosso takes the far post shot, out in front of the defenders who try to get in his way, but taking a nasty bend inside the post. There's like two defenders and the keeper on a straight line between him and the goal, and his shot goes just around them and then changes course into the goal. Just fucking evil, I tell you.
As all the Germans come forward, the Italians do what they do best, clear a long shot up into the air, and as Podolski tries to settle it, Cannavaro leaps in to head it forward, for the counter. Gilardino takes it in one on one with a German defender moving right across the top of the box, then cheekily cuts it back with a move that looks like he shouldn't be able to turn his ankle that way for Alessandro del Piero coming in behind him, and Del Piero takes the perfect shot over Lehmann into the far corner.
For most of this game the Italians were creating the better chances, even though they were few and far between and weren't getting much for it, while the Germans were settling for long shots by Ballack from 30 yards out. Podolski and Klose were pretty invisible for most of the game, hooking up with Ballack only a couple times in 2 hours. Pretty tough stuff defensively, but not the complete catenaccio defensive bullshit the Italians used to sit back with. When they came out for extra time the Italians really put some heart-stopping shots, like Gilardino going to the endline, and as a defender tried to close, cutting upfield and letting the guy run past him, then as Lehmann leans back to cover the far post, Gilardino bangs it in front of him, but off the post like a hammer. That was such a fucking awesome "We've forgotten more about this game than you ever knew" moment, making the Germans look so clumsy, I enjoyed it immensely. Seriously, shit like that is why I love watching France, the head down, ankle-breaking "it's hard work making you look this bad" playground moves. I just thought the Italians showed some fucking style is all.
Going completely backwards, the first half highlight for me was Francesco Totti running for a ball, only to have Michael Ballack get there first and instead of playing the ball, step over it so he could shield it from Totti and put a shoulder to him. Ballack realizes Totti's coming at him like a freight train and ducks down a bit, and Totti figuring he can squeeze a foul out of the wedge Ballack has made out of his body, jumps and rolls over Ballack's back, arms flailing, like he's been sent flying, and lands hard and stays down. The ref called a foul because of Ballack was so obviously playing to put a hit on Totti, not a foot to the ball. When Totti stays down, the ref came over and sarcastically started gesturing for him to get up and quit acting hurt to lobby for a yellow card, and even Totti looked like he was about to crack a smile at his own theatrics.
Italy advances to the World Cup Final, Germany to the 3rd place game, which they will almost certainly win, since the team with the most to prove always wins, and Germany will be playing in front of home fans.
Italy 2-0 Germany
'119 Grosso
'121+ Del Piero
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